Call them demons without calling them demons: how the New York Times legitimises violence in its coverage of 7 October 2023

Mohamad Jamil, Siti Nurnadilla (2026) Call them demons without calling them demons: how the New York Times legitimises violence in its coverage of 7 October 2023. Discourse & Society, 37 (4). pp. 704-726. ISSN 0957-9265 E-ISSN 1460-3624

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Abstract

The New York Times’s coverage of Gaza has been extensively studied for media bias, yet its role in legitimising mass violence has been relatively unexamined. Addressing this gap, I analyse the newspaper’s reporting from 7 October 2023, through 7 April 2024 to conceptualise what I term subtle demonisation. Drawing on Hart’s Cognitive Critical Discourse Analysis, I integrate Bakhtin’s chronotope with attention distribution to identify four destructive patterns: (1) chronotopic displacement, (2) agentive asymmetry, (3) semantic bundling, and (4) metaphor-driven reclassification that construes Palestinians as existential threats requiring elimination. I find these patterns collectively construct Palestinians as demons without naming them as such, rendering their lives structurally expendable. In doing so, I extend debates on media bias by showing how the language of journalistic objectivity functions as an instrument of epistemic erasure and a mechanism of complicity in atrocity

Item Type:	Article (Journal)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	cognitive critical discourse analysis, attention distribution, chronotope, demonisation, The New York Times, 7 October 2023, genocide in Gaza
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button):	Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences > Department of English Language & Literature
Depositing User:	Dr Siti Nurnadilla Mohamad Jamil
Date Deposited:	10 Jun 2026 14:52
Last Modified:	10 Jun 2026 14:52
Queue Number:	2026-06-Q3620
URI:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/125424

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